In the Mood for a good laugh

Veteran actor Ron Moody did his last stage tour to pay for a new extension on his home - but he says that his current play, which brings him to Oxford Playhouse this week, is just for artistic satisfaction.

Veteran actor Ron Moody did his last stage tour to pay for a new extension on his home - but he says that his current play, which brings him to Oxford Playhouse this week, is just for artistic satisfaction.

He stars as the tutor of a class of wannabe funnymen in Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians.

He told me: "I had just finished a tour with Brian Murphy in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys and needed a rest - but this was just too good a part to turn down."

First staged in the 1970s, Comedians is sometimes credited with forecasting the explosion of alternative comedy.

Having begun his career in clubs before turning to straight acting, he thinks he understands the comic's obsession with getting laughs.

He said: "What interests me now is finding the character I am playing, which can take a long time."

He is still best remembered for his role as Fagin in the musical Oliver! which he played for a year on the West End stage and re-created in the Oscar-winning screen version. He said: "It was a great stroke of luck to be offered the film because usually they are looking for bigger names than mine."

Ron also has vivid memories of taking the leading role in the Mel Brooks movie The 12 Chairs.

He recalled "It was a Russian story but you couldn't film in what was then the Soviet Union so we ended up in Yugoslavia, which Mel always described as a 40-watt-bulb country."

It's the least-known of Mel's pictures and Ron said: "It was an independent production and they never get the distribution which you are assured of if you are working for a company like MGM."

Ron has published several books and intends to go on writing when he finally hangs up his acting spurs.

The Oxford Stage Company production of Comedians is at the Playhouse until Saturday.